


Rest

by haelsningar



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Depression, Healing, Link doesn't want to be the hero of hyrule, Link is struggling, M/M, Responsibility, Sadness, kind of, like just let him rest already
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-15 15:57:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11234295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haelsningar/pseuds/haelsningar
Summary: Link is tired and on the verge of falling apart. The only place he can rest is in Zora's Domain.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Sidlink fic so I hope it's okay, or at least not so hideous as to burn your retinas at the mere sight of it!

Link walks on tiredly, trying not to drag his legs along the ground. His clothes are torn and his face is covered in dirt. He feels like he’s been travelling for years and years, without ever getting closer to his destination. He’s just succeeded in calming the Divine Beast Vah Naboris. It was a difficult battle, the most challenging one he’s faced since he awoke in the Shrine of Resurrection. This accomplishment was met with cheers of triumph and joy from the Gerudo people but although Link tried to join in the festive spirit, doubt was beginning to eat away at him on the inside. If the mere shade of Ganon which had corrupted Vah Naboris was almost enough to end him then how would he fare against the real thing? He knows that he has to keep on walking this path that he’s on, because there is no other. He has to keep fighting this battle even though with every step he takes, every swing of his sword, he loses just a little more hope. But there is nothing else he can do. He will have to keep on fighting even when he’s sure he’ll lose. There’s no one else who can shoulder this burden from him. And even if Link wanted to take the coward’s option and run away—which he has at times desperately wished he could—there’s nowhere he could run. When Calamity Ganon breaks loose there is no place that will be spared from its destruction. All will be devoured. The world will end unless a scrawny boy with a sword and no memories can seal away ultimate evil. Link tries not to dwell too much on this predicament, because every time he does he feels like an invisible pair of hands are closing around his throat, but he can’t exactly not think about it either. Not when everything he does is for the sake of this horrible destiny of his. So he thinks about it just enough to feed the bitterness that lives deep in his chest, because although hope is fickle and might abandon him any minute, that bitterness won’t. It’ll stay by his side, a faithful friend, until the end of his journey.

 

It’s raining. The ground beneath his feet has been turned into mush. Mud clings to his boots and the bottom of his pants and tries to drag him down. Link wants to lay down in the mud and scream at the ground, at the land. _Why are you doing this_ he wants to say, _why are you doing this when I’m trying so hard to save you?_ But he guesses it’s too much to ask for Hyrule to be sentient, to stand by its hero instead of being so cruelly impartial. ~~Isn’t Hylia supposed to live in the land? In the grass and the trees and the rocks and the people?~~ Link yanks his feet free from the mud with every step. It’s tiring but it slows down the coldness that’s spreading from his soaking wet clothes down into his bones. He walks the path in front of him, glad that he recently cleaned out this area of the lizalfos that had set up camp here. He couldn’t fight anything right now. Not when he’s ridden half the way from the Gerudo Desert and then walked the other half after his horse had been spooked by some Bokoblins and ran off on him in the middle of nowhere. It was a newly caught horse too, and it didn’t yet trust him enough to respond to his call. Walking the path to Zora’s Domain on aching, swollen feet.

 

Link feels bad about going here when there are still two more Divine Beasts to fight but after facing Thunderblight Ganon he’s not in any shape to be going after Vah Rudania. He needs to rest and heal before he can continue and so he heads for the one place he can feel at ease. Link makes his way around the last turn and finally lays eyes upon the entrance to Zora’s Domain. He walks through the gate, the guards recognising him immediately, and heads towards the center of the Domain. Exhaustion tugs at him from every direction and he should go to the inn to get a good night’s sleep, or the infirmary to have his latest wounds looked at, but instead he finds himself stumbling towards the large, ornate doors of the throne room. He probably shouldn’t just barge in here like this; he knows that. But with the amount of gratitude the Zora people have showered him in since he calmed Vah Ruta he feels safe in his assumption that he will be welcomed even here, in the political center of the Domain. The doors open under his hands and he takes a tentative step into the room. All heads immediately turn to the newcomer. Normally Link would shrink under the weight of the many stares but right now he’s just too tired. He’s practically dead on his feet, so instead of worrying about how he’s presenting himself in front of so many people he just searches the room for one familiar pair of eyes. It doesn’t take long to find them and as soon as their gazes meet, Sidon is on his feet, walking towards Link. Sidon guides out of the throne room and picks him up bridal style and instead of blushing and protesting, Link just relaxes and snuggles in closer. Sidon is warm and solid and it’s nice because Link feels about as strong as a pile of Bokoblin guts right now.

 

Sidon takes them through the endless tunnels of the inner Domain and Link doesn’t need to look to know he’s being taken to the prince’s private chambers. Inside the room Sidon walks right past the large sleeping pool in the center of the room and heads towards the bed that’s been placed haphazardly against the back wall. It looks out of place here, the whole room having been designed around the sleeping pool with no real place for a Hylian bed. It also looks far too plain to be situated in the bedroom of a prince. Link hates how accurately it symbolises his presence in Sidon’s life. Sidon lays Link gently down on the bed now, before seating himself at his side. The air is thick with things neither of them can muster up the energy to say ( ~~where have you been, what have you been up to?~~ ) , things they can’t say because they’ll end up screaming or crying, and Link’s wounded and maybe Sidon is too ( ~~I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long, I wish I could stay~~ ) and this just _isn’t the time_. So they don’t say anything. That strategy has been working for them for some time now and why change a winning concept? And maybe some of those things that can’t be said aloud are there in Sidon’s hand stroking Link’s forehead, or the deep sigh that Link heaves just before drifting off to sleep.

 

He dreams about being stranded on a desert island, with Sidon as his only company.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that these chapters are all shorter than Sidon's legs but for some reason I apparently can't write long chapters  
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Link wakes up disoriented and with a slight headache. He’s not used to sleeping for so long at a time, normally settling for short naps on the road. But here, within the walls of Zora’s Domain, the sun can’t reach him and force him out of his dreams come morning. There’s no monsters to attack him here either. He can afford to be vulnerable. The only person to see him here is Sidon and Link knows he’d never hurt him. ~~And if he did, maybe that’s a hurt that Link would welcome.~~

Speak of the devil.

“Good morning.” Sidon’s voice is scratchy. If he were a Hylian, Link would think he’s been crying. Link doesn’t know if Zora can cry. “Or good afternoon, I suppose. It seems you slept through most of the day.” Sidon is sitting on the floor next to the bed. Link wonders if he’s been sitting there the whole time while Link slept. Probably not. Even the Hero of Hyrule can’t expect the only heir to the Zora throne to be his personal nurse twenty-four-seven. “How do you feel? I had the healers look at you. They said your wounds were all minor. The sleep deprivation was taking its toll on you though.”

Link nods. Sidon’s words pretty much confirm his own earlier estimations.

“You need to be more careful. If a monster attacks you when you’re in a state like yesterday, you could get seriously injured!” The unspoken _or worse_ hangs in the air like a dead weight.

Link nods again. It’s half-hearted. He knows he can’t do much better than he already is, and so does Sidon. Still they go through this charade every time, because what kind of friend would Sidon be if he didn’t at least _try_ , and what kind of hero would Link be if he didn’t at least _pretend_?

Sidon isn’t happy with half-hearted. He wishes Link meant it. Link wishes he did too. Sidon huffs and opens his mouth to speak again, clearly not about to let this go yet. That’s the kind of good friend he is; he’d probably lecture Link until the end of the world if he could, until Calamity Ganon attacked and swallowed them all. Link’s a less good friend though, so he sits up on his haunches on the bed, so that he’s roughly face to face with Sidon who’s still on the floor, and leans forward to place the palms of his hands on Sidon’s chest, effectively silencing him. Sidon’s mouth closes again, his eyes widening minutely and his gills flaring. Sidon always reacts like this to Link, and it makes Link feel powerful enough to slay a Lynel with his bare hands. When they’re close like this, and Sidon has that look on his face: apprehensive, mesmerised and a little scared, Link can almost forget that the world is ending. He can almost believe that he’s just another kid from Hateno who naïvely travelled to the distant land of Zora’s Domain in search of _adventure_. He can almost believe that Sidon is in love with him.

They sit like that, as if balancing their weight precariously against each other, until Link leans in just a little bit closer, and Sidon breaks and pulls him in, and they topple over. When they touch each other it’s rushed, always rushed, but always gentle too. They press insistent kisses into the crooks of necks and the corners of mouths. Not an inch of skin is left untouched, because this might be their last chance. In a month, a week, an hour, they might both be dead.

Link knows that this thing between them is probably a bit  _ unseemly _ , and if he  _ were _ just a kid from Hateno, and if Sidon didn’t have to carry the weight of both his own responsibilities and those which should have been his sister’s, it probably wouldn’t have happened in the first place. No, in that imaginary world Link would probably marry some sweet village girl who he grew up right next door to. They’d own a farm or a shop together and despite the dreams of adventure in his youth, Link would never travel farther than the Dueling Peaks Stable. He’d never even see a real live Zora. Sidon would marry a woman from the Domain, maybe one of the girls from his fanclub. They’d produce an heir, as royalty should, and live a calm life filled with politics and fancy banquets. He’d never have to beg the council to lay all their faith in a scrawny-looking Hylian who’s supposed to be the mythical Hero of Hyrule, but looks more like a baby Moblin, with his short stature and skinny limbs that he can barely control outside of a fight.

But that is not the world they’re living in. They’re living in the real world, where Calamity Ganon is real and looming over them all and the girls Link grew up with have probably all died of old age by now (and even if they hadn’t, it’s not like he can  _ remember _ them). So yeah, the world is awful and sometimes, in the peaceful quiet of Sidon’s private chambers they do  _ unseemly _ things together. Neither of them has time to fall in love what with the impending apocalypse and all that, and they probably won’t live long enough to have to deal with any sort of awkward aftermath of this relationship they have. It’s nice though. Sidon makes Link feel a bit more grounded, like he’s not going to float off into space any second. And Sidon is his only real friend in the world, the only person who actually bothers to ask how  _ he’s _ doing and not just how his  _ quest _ is going. In a world full of ghosts he  _ should _ remember, Sidon is a fresh face, a fresh start. Link knows where he stands with Sidon in a way he doesn’t with Impa or Mipha’s spirit, or the champions. So it’s really only natural that Link should treasure Sidon’s friendship all the more because of this. Therefore it’s nice to be able to reach out and lay his hands on Sidon and really feel that he’s still there, still alive, that Link still has some things left that matter to him.

Warm bodies move against each other until they can’t anymore, until they’re too tired to do anything but lie sleepily side by side. It’s a good kind of tired though, much better than the one Link wears out on his adventures. They don’t speak still, preferring to let grunts and moans and touches say what they can’t with words. The only word that is shared between them is when Sidon whispers Link’s name into the curve of his shoulder. It’s so soft that it might just have been a sigh, but Link likes the idea of Sidon saying his name at a time like this, so he decides that’s what it was. Afterwards they lie on the floor of Sidon’s room. The bed is too small to accommodate Sidon’s large frame and Link is too scared of drowning to try the sleeping pool. It’s alright though; they’re tough, and they’ve both spent some time sleeping on the cold hard ground in their lives (Link more than Sidon, admittedly). The floor’s got nothing on them.

At some point the blanket from the bed has migrated down to where they are on the floor. It covers Link’s back, protecting him from the cool, moist air of Zora’s Domain. He only needs it to cover his back, because his chest and face and stomach are all pressed flush against Sidon’s warm body. Link wraps his arms around Sidon best he can (he only reaches about halfway around the prince’s upper body but it’s good enough) and holds on tight. He breathes in deep and thanks Hylia for _this_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi friends! If you liked you should leave kudos or a comment because they make me happy! Yay!


	3. Chapter 3

The next time Link wakes, he feels much more rested. He also feels cold unfortunately, and a little sore after having slept on the floor. He gazes out the large window on the wall of Sidon’s bedroom and finds that it’s dark outside. He must have slept through the rest of the day then.

Link is alone in the room. Sidon must have stepped outside for a walk and not wanted to wake the exhausted Hylian. But Link’s awake now, and he doesn’t think he could go back to sleep if he tried. So instead he gets dressed and slips out of the room as quietly as he can, not wanting to disturb the peace of the night by making a racket. He pads through the softly illuminated hallways, the soles of his shoes making a gentle _click click_ sound against the marble floors. He makes his way through the labyrinth that is the Inner Domain, passing rooms and large pools on his way. Link thinks about how different the night is here in the Domain compared to out in the wild. Out there it’s dangerous, violent and full of things that’d love to take a bite out of you. In here, though, it’s peaceful, solemn, a time for reflection and healing. He wishes he could work on his quest in the daytime only, and return here every night, but that’s not possible.

 _Click click click_ as he walks through the large archway at the end of the hallway, and the ceiling above his head is replaced by the starry night sky. His walk has lead him to the large square in the middle of Zora’s Domain. In the center of the plaza he can see Mipha’s statue, stoic and unwavering, guarding her people even now, in death. In front of her stands another figure, smaller, warmer and sadder than the long dead princess. As Link approaches Sidon, he deliberately _click-click-click_ s his shoes a little extra against the ground, alerting the prince to his presence. At the sound, Sidon’s eyes slip from his sister’s statue over to Link. As he recognizes the Hylian, something in his demeanor seems to relax, and something else tenses up. A small melancholic smile settles on his face, and he turns slightly to face Link as well as the statue.

“Good evening, my pearl.” Sidon’s voice is low and as smooth as silk. Link wants to drape himself in it like a cape. “I was just visiting my sister. I find myself missing her presence more than ever lately.”

Link’s eyebrows draw together. Of course Sidon misses Mipha. She was his sister after all, and from what Link can gather about her, she was the kind of person who will never not be missed. Link should miss her too. They were friends for a long time, and she did love him. The Zora armour currently stowed away in his pack is proof of that. Problem is he can’t remember any of it. He can’t remember knowing her, talking to her, laughing with her, and he can’t remember whether or not he loved her back. Link should feel the pain of missing Mipha, not just stand here trying to figure out how to support Sidon through _his_ pain.

When Link comes out of his reverie and looks at Sidon again, he finds that the prince has turned away from Mipha’s form to fully face Link. His eyes are trained on Link’s face, and there’s something contemplative in them, as if he’s searching for something. Link’s eyebrows furrow in response, silently asking Sidon what he’s looking for. The air is cold and heavy with rain and wasn’t it supposed to stop raining after he defeated Vah Ruta? Maybe the rain was never caused by Vah Ruta in the first place. Maybe it was the tears of the goddesses. Maybe they pop in every once in a while to watch over Link, and just can’t help but cry when they see the impossible war he has to fight. The war he’ll undoubtedly lose. But Link doesn’t appreciate their sorrow. It’s harder to fight in the rain, when the ground is slippery and you can’t see what’s right in front of you. _Woman up_ , Link wants to say to Nayru. _Pull yourself together_ , he wants to tell Farore. _Be strong_ , he wants to yell at Din. ~~_Where are you_ , he wants to scream at Hylia. ~~

Link knows that Sidon can see his weakness, and for a second he sees it reflected in the prince’s face as well, but then it’s gone, as quickly as it appeared, and Sidon’s smile is back, slightly less melancholic this time.

“What do you think you’ll do?” Sidon asks. “After?” After the war is over. After we’ve done the impossible. After your destiny is fulfilled.

Link contemplates the question as if there will actually be an _after_ , as if this war won’t last forever. He thinks about where he would like to go, what he would like to do, if he had a chance at survival. It’s not a hard question. The answer is all around him, and right in front of him. Link meets Sidon’s eyes, lifts his foot slightly only to plant it firmly in the ground again. _Here_ , his gesture says. _I want to be right here. I want to walk this ground and swim these waters_.

The corners of Sidon’s mouth lift higher and almost all of the sadness trickles out of his smile. He looks like he can see it in front of him: the day when Link will live in this kingdom and never have to go off to fight impossible enemies. Sidon looks like he believes this day will come. Link pretends to as well, for Sidon’s sake.

“Good. Perhaps you can take up work as the new royal chef.” Sidon’s eyes are filled with mirth now, and Link can’t help but huff out a laugh. “Or perhaps we should employ you as a court jester, considering your arrival during your last visit,” Sidon teases. Link raises his hand to his chest and gapes in mock offense. The last time he visited, Link didn’t take the rocky path to the Domain, but instead used his paraglider to sail in from the mountains to the northwest. However, he was exhausted at the time, and his entrance was less than graceful, ending with him crashing into several Zora at his landing, the Zora prince himself among them. Sidon has since found no end to the hilarity of Link’s clumsiness. Sidon’s laughter is contagious however, and Link ends up dropping his offended façade to join him in ungraceful, boisterous laughter. Maybe they’ll wake up the entire Domain with their cackling. Maybe Link doesn’t care.

They walk aimlessly together through the Domain, side by side, pretending as if they live the kind of lives where jokes and laughter are not rarer than Zora’s Sapphires. Link doesn’t think about his duty towards Hyrule. Instead he imagines that he really is just a traveller who’s happened upon this marvellous kingdom. Beneath the sound of their laughs, the _click click click_ of Link’s feet is accompanied by the _clack clack clack_ of Sidon’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hAHAHA I'M SUCH A PRETENTIOUS LIL SHIT!

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, please do leave a comment. They motivate me to write more stuff! Constructive criticism is appreciated too.


End file.
